Rockets center Dwight Howard, left, battles his Nets counterpart, Brook Lopez, right, for a rebound. Howard won the rebounding battle 17-12, and each had five blocks, but Lopez's team came away with its first victory. less

Rockets center Dwight Howard, left, battles his Nets counterpart, Brook Lopez, right, for a rebound. Howard won the rebounding battle 17-12, and each had five blocks, but Lopez's team came away with its first ... more

Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff

Nets gain first win at Rockets' expense

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The Rockets spent their two practice days working to shore up their porous and at best sporadic defense.

They spent the game day emphasizing the need to hit the boards. They knew what needed to be done.

Little changed. Even a winless team, if allowed to shoot and shoot and shoot, will make some baskets. If the Rockets were not clear on that, the Brooklyn Nets drove the point home.

The Nets, carrying an 0-7 record and the second-lowest scoring offense in the NBA, spent the night driving through the Rockets' defense, drawing help and pounding the offensive boards. Eventually, with a night's worth of shooting drills behind them, the Nets pulled away 106-98, and the Rockets' four-game winning streak ended with their third home loss of the season.

With that, progress that appeared to be building headed the other way.

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"I mean, I'm worried about our team right now," Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. "We haven't caught a rhythm yet. We haven't been able to put together long runs of just good, solid basketball. We had a couple games in a row there where I thought we were coming out of some stuff. Our defense has had way too many individual breakdowns, way too many mistakes. That just can't happen."

The Rockets had strung together wins when James Harden drove their offense and the defense at least locked down late in games. That was enough to overcome shortcomings.

Blatant misfires

Against the Nets, the Rockets made just eight of 34 3-pointers and six of 12 free throws. Harden had 23 points, but just two in the fourth quarter. But they needed Harden and their offense to carry them because the defense was so poor.

"The game plan was if we win the defensive boards, we'll win the game," guard Ty Lawson said. "They got 20 offensive rebounds. That's where we lost the game right there."

Brooklyn scored 33 second-chance points, including 21 in the first half to match the most the Rockets had allowed in a game this season. Dwight Howard had 17 rebounds (to go with his 20 points and a season-high five blocked shots). But the Nets so consistently drew the Rockets' big men to help, they could miss and chase the rebound for second shots.

"When we play small all, everybody has to make a concentrated effort to really help each other out on the boards," Howard said. "A lot of times when I went over to help and block shots, they would crash the boards. They got second shots, and they got in a good rhythm."

The Rockets stuck with their small lineup, with Trevor Ariza at power forward and Marcus Thornton starting. But because of the defensive breakdowns, they were no better in the stretches they had Terrence Jones on the floor with Howard.

"It's about heart out there, man," said Thornton, who had 21 points, seven assists and four steals. "It's about heart and determination and effort."

Late in the game, when the Rockets made two of their final 10 shots, Brooklyn needed only a jumper by Bojan Bogdanovic and another by Jarrett Jack to pull away. But the Rockets knew they had put themselves in position to be stunned late because they allowed the Nets to take target practice all night.

Ariza's lament

"They just totally came in here and outworked us," Ariza said. "We didn't play with any type of energy. We didn't play to our potential at all. This is what happens: You lose. We want to give a better effort."

Even with their rush of wins last week, the Rockets knew how far from last year's standard they have been. The days at home were supposed to be their chance to fix that. Instead, the Rockets allowed a foe scoring fewer points than all but one NBA team to be the eighth in eight games to reach 100 against them.

"We're eight games in," Lawson said. "We don't have too much longer to figure it out before things start getting crazy."